ABSTRACT
At the Seventeenth Party Congress in January 1934 Stalin proclaimed that the Soviet Union was free from ‘backwardness and medievalism’. The Soviet press reported that Stalin’s speech was greeted by ‘stormy and prolonged applause’. Khrushchev in his statement to the Congress called Stalin ‘the greatest leader of all times and all peoples’ and ‘our Leader-Genius’. Kirov’s speech produced a long standing ovation and shouts of ‘Long live our Mironych [Kirov’s patronymic]!’ After the secret voting in the election of the Central Committee, V.P.Zatonsky, the chairman of the elections commission, counted the ballots. He discovered that 1,108 ballots out of the total of 1,966 had Stalin’s name crossed out, while Kirov’s name had been crossed out on only three. Zatonsky reported the results to Lazar Kaganovich and to Stalin. They decided to conceal the voting results and declared that Stalin’s name had been crossed out by only three delegates, as had Kirov’s.1 During a Politburo meeting Stalin expressed his desire to resign. Predictably, all expressed confidence in him. Molotov stated, ‘No one could replace you.’ Stalin readily agreed: ‘Only enemies can say that you can remove Stalin and nothing will happen!’ Kirov, too, urged Stalin to remain in post, but advised him to be more sensitive in how he treated people. ‘When I was walking out of Stalin’s office’, Kirov later told his friend Chudov, ‘I had the feeling that my head was placed on the block. Stalin’s stare was such…that I knew I had signed my own death sentence.’2
